


His Fire (Angel Camisado Backstory)

by oesterheld



Series: D&D Character Backstories [7]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Dungeons & Dragons Character Backstory, F/M, M/M, barbarian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25368889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oesterheld/pseuds/oesterheld
Summary: Angel Camisado is a goblin-elf barbarian storm herald. He had a pretty tough life. Read about it.
Relationships: Angel Camisado/Kala, Angel Camisado/Lisbet, Angel Camisado/Robi
Series: D&D Character Backstories [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684225
Kudos: 1





	His Fire (Angel Camisado Backstory)

Angel Camisado was made in a lab in a port city up north. They saw his weak skin and frail bones and deemed him a failed experiment, tossing him off the dock into the ocean to sink and die. The ocean had other plans.

A tiny green baby was found on the shore, waterlogged but alive, by a crew member of The Devil’s Scream. It’s a mangy old boat with not much to its name, but the rules aboard were loose. Every man for himself. Angel was raised by this man, Camisado, on board for five years, all the while being pushed to learn, think, and act for himself. Every pirate must watch his own back before he can watch anyone else’s.

The Devil’s Scream was pillaged thoroughly just before the boy turned 6, and his namesake, Camisado, was killed in the battle. No one else on the ship cared for the boy, so he was left on the docks as soon as the ship found land. He was ushered onto a long-distance ferry with a kind family and lived there for a few years before he was found by staff.

Ages 8 to 11 were a blur for Cam, hopping from ship to ship trying to stay alive, trying to remain useful. He took a stint on a dangerous pirate ship that used his small frame to sneak onto enemy boats during raids and steal valuables. Then, they’d set fire to the enemy ships. Cam started to have vivid desert dreams. He’s stranded in the desert alone, forced to survive somehow in the blazing heat. When he dies he wakes up on the ship, in the ocean. Soon enough, he learned how to survive, and every time he went to sleep, he anticipated the harsh sandy dunes that he made his second home. The Captain of the ship noticed him rack up a high fever and he dumped him in some small port town, not wanting to catch his sickness.

His first storm occurred when he was 11, aboard a simple fishing boat. It was attacked by a pirate ship not unlike the one he was raised on, and in defending himself, he entered a rage, and the sky blacked out. The storm wasn’t extreme, but it chased away the intruders; almost like it was a fabled ghost ship, fading away back into the sea. The fishermen who hired him took him back to shore and ditched him, afraid of his storm heralding ability. 

Laying low, Cam took a grunt job on The Liberty, a precious cargo ship. He’s been on boats with crew like family and he’s been on boats that treat it like a job rather than a lifestyle. This ship was a rather extreme case of the latter. The captain was adamant that no bonds be formed onboard, and his 11 year old daughter idolized her dad. Cam developed an infatuation with Poppy, to the point where he just had to tell her no matter the rules of the ship. She rejected him, outright. “You don’t even know me. I don’t know you. We’ve spent two years on this ship together and I don’t know your first name.” She assumed Camisado was a surname. Cam disobeyed the captain’s no bonds rule directly, and it blew up in his face. Poppy told her father about the confession and Cam was forced to leave. As the ship docked for him to get off, he lost it, and went into a rage for a second time. The storm flooded the docking town and by the time the sky cleared, The Liberty was gone, leaving Cam alone on the shore once again.

He took a few one-off jobs before he settled down once again on a respectable ship called Old Flame. This was another cargo ship, and the crew here was more personable. Everyone had pretty shallow relationships, but a man on crew introduced Cam to his first love. A friendly crew member had a niece named Lisbet who would greet them every time they docked. Cam was twelve now and so was she, and they hit it off. They became very close very fast, but their relationship remained pretty shallow, like those onboard. Still, they loved each other as much as one can at 12 years old.

They went steady for a while. Cam had time to explore interests rather than just existing to work; he discovered the stars. He lost his virginity to Lisbet, and hers to him. But when you’re Cam, you learn to expect nasty endings to temporary contentment.

Lisbet’s uncle is killed in a fire set to the boat by the infamous pirate ship he’d helped only years before: The Black Desire. The ship only suffered two casualties, but that was enough to end Cam’s steady happiness. Without her uncle tying her to the docks, Lisbet never showed up again. Cam stayed on Old Flame, hoping to see her again, but it seemed he’d been abandoned. When a crew member brought this up, breaking it to Cam that she’s never coming back, Cam lost it, causing a bigger storm than he’d brewed before. The ship was almost pulled under, but they made it out, and Cam was, of course, banished from Old Flame.

Cam dated around for awhile, growing into his slim muscle and mysterious charm. Girls loved him, but as he went from boat to boat, he didn’t make many commitments. He didn’t remember much from The Devil’s Scream, but he carries that mindset with him always. He looks out for himself first. Deep connections can be made but at the end of the day, they can also be abandoned.

He met Robi in a tavern in Buttsnick and boarded his ship, Triton’s Freedom. This is where Cam found himself for the first time.

Cam introduced himself to Robi and immediately the boy teased him for his name. He called him nicknames, a mixture of rude and cute ones he came up with situationally. Never “Cam.” Soon enough, Cam did something to award him the name Angel. It stuck, and Robi didn’t come up with new nicknames anymore. Angel grew used to this, as did the crew. Robi gave him space to be himself: someone he’d never thought about before.

Robi introduced him to things he never knew, beauties of the world that Angel didn’t know he was smart or perceptive enough to appreciate. In return, Angel gave Robi the sun and the stars, all of his knowledge of the gods and his maps of the sky. At 15, Robi gave him permission to have an identity for the first time.

Angel discovered that he likes to argue. He has strong opinions about just about everything and, when permitted, he’ll die on every hill. He’s passionate and stubborn, and his fire matched Robi’s like no one the boy had ever met. Soon enough, Angel realized he was in love.

Just like that, the boys shifted into a romantic relationship. They were inseparable on the ship and the few times they returned to land. No pun intended, Angel learned to be free on Triton's Freedom.

When you’re on a pirate ship, though, life is always fleeting. They launched an attack on a ship half their size, but the crew happened to be well trained fighters. There were many more casualties than expected, and halfway through the battle, as Angel landed his axe in a man’s shoulder, he looked onto the love of his life being stabbed through the belly.

Instantly, thunder was booming and rain was pouring. For the first time, lightning struck during his rage, and the man wielding the sword impaling his love fell in a lump on the ground. Angel rushed to Robi’s side, holding him while the ship went down. Waves crashed violently against the ship’s sides and Angel hugged Robi tight to his chest, feeling his last breaths as they were submerged in water.

Angel Camisado startled awake covered in wet sand and salt water, arm still wrapped tightly around the bloated corpse of his best friend of the past three years. He didn’t look down. He left it there.

He boarded the first ship he could find: The Black Desire. He introduced himself as Cam and the captain took interest in him immediately. He fell back on his order-following soldier act and he let himself forget Triton’s Freedom. He eased into Kala, the young new captain of the infamous ship. She was familiar. Her energy bursted with the same fire Robi’s did. She was a visionary and Cam saw Robi in her eyes.

She wasn’t Robi, though, and this wasn’t Triton’s Freedom. Cam wasn’t free here, though he was given the facade of free will. Kala had him under her thumb, pulling his strings every which way, and he was none the wiser. Cam let her command him, and he lost himself in her. She introduced him to alcohol.

It’s not like he hadn’t drank before. He’s a sailor. A pirate, even. But this time, he didn’t drink to have a good time, he drank to forget; and forget, he did. He got blackout drunk on the regular and woke up in the captain's quarters with bruises in places he didn’t remember getting hit. It didn’t take him too long to realize they weren’t bruises, they were hickeys, and he was in a relationship he didn’t particularly opt to be in. He didn’t mind, though. He liked Kala, though her ideas were unconventional. 

Camisado was a rule follower. He was non-confrontational. He was passive. He let people tell him what to do, who to be. He was a good crewmate. The Black Desire took this part of him and multiplied it, making him dangerously susceptible to command. He was a walking puppet, drunk and vulnerable. When the crew did raids and set fires, he often had to be pulled away from them. The dreams grew longer and his time on the boat shrunk. He would be in the desert, in the cave he’d found years ago, and he’d occasionally catch glimpses of what Kala was doing to him in the captain’s quarters but for the most part, he was unconscious.

One fateful night, Kala had gotten him drunker than he should have been. It wasn’t unlike other nights; the only thing setting this one apart from many was the ship they’d just burned into the ocean hours before. Cam was filled with adrenaline, with emotion. For the first time since Robi died, he was filled with fire.

Kala took him to her bed and for the first time, he told her no. She pushed him down and still, he told her no. He felt like he could throw up with rage as she ripped open his loose, revealing silk shirt but he couldn’t push back against her. He couldn’t move his arms to fight her. He just let it happen, like it had happened a million times before. But the rage crackled in his throat and this time it was different. The ship lurched to the left with a particularly violent wave, but Kala’s weight on top of him remained steady. She started shouting at him to move, to lay down, to let her in. The ship lurched and Kala shouted and thunder boomed and the silk fluttered on Cam’s skin, frayed where it was pulled open,

and Cam screamed.

Lighting tore through four layers of the ship, striking Kala on the back. Her face twisted from anger to shock to fear, and the last thing he saw of her was terror in her eyes before her body burst into flame.

Cam’s enemies had been struck with lightning before. It wasn’t a totally uncommon occurrence. But the fire was completely new and uncontrollable, and before he could come to his senses, Cam felt Kala’s skin melt into his thighs and her hand sink into his shoulder. He screamed and screamed until the room began to fill with water and all of a sudden, he was back on Triton’s Freedom, sinking into the ocean. The salt water washing against his burns filled his body with an entirely new pain and he passed out under the water and flames.

Again, he woke up on a foreign beach, and again, he was alone.

Unable to think, Camisado stumbled into a nearby bar and accepted the help of a well meaning bard. His wounds scarred over, emotional and physical, as he slept for a week in the upstairs bedroom of a tavern he doesn’t remember the name of. Once he decided to leave, he left in secret, not wanting to alert the kind owner of the joint to his disappearance. He left the only thing of value he had as payment: a gold chain Kala had given him from one of their raids.

He couldn’t get back on the ocean just yet. Cam took off south, traveling on the coastline aimlessly and having meaningless relations with pretty men and women alike until he reached the small town of Buttsnick. He knows this town, but can’t remember why. He’s drawn to a poster on the bulletin board in the lobby of the inn; quite possibly the worst job advertisement he’s ever seen in his life. This ship will need a capable hand. He can provide that. He doesn’t need to be anything, make any bonds that he won’t be able to hold onto. He can just work.

He finds himself on the dock, watching as a big, burly ginger man wrestles a dark haired twink into the lower deck of a ship. Several people board quickly, as if it’s an emergency, and the woman from the ad notices he’s there. She hails him onto the boat.

He introduces himself as Angel Camisado.


End file.
